This appointment was important to him – but it certainly wasn’t easy!
Speaking on Thursday morning Bavaria-President Herbert Hainer (71) together with Honorary President Uli Hoeneß (73) on the topic of dementia and Alzheimer’s.
The Bavarians packed a “souvenir box” with items from the Bavarian Museum for dementia patients and also donated 12,500 euros to the Alzheimer’s Society in Munich – which Hoeneß spontaneously doubled to 25,000 euros.
At the meeting, Hainer also talked about his wife’s dementia! President of Bavaria: “I myself am affected, my wife died of dementia a year and a half ago, so I am dealing with this problem more intensively.”
Hainer’s wife, Angelika, died in August 2024 at the age of 66.
For Hainer, this is a very special topic: “Football in particular has a lot of opportunities to help people with dementia. We know that sick people often remember happy moments, that’s what we tried to do with this keepsake box. There are a lot of old stories in there, we saw how people reminisce, experience beautiful moments, sing songs like Franz Beckenbauer’s ‘Nothing can separate good friends’. It’s great that we can still create happy moments for people with dementia. We get a very positive response from them. “We have There are 1.8 million people suffering from dementia in Germany, and as people age, any help is very welcome. Currently we have also heard that this disease not only attacks elderly people, but also young people.
Hoeneß also called for more support: “We should try to collect more cases and maybe publicize it more. Because I can definitely imagine that you can bring great joy to many people. And right now I am experiencing this in my circle of friends, I am a little over 70 now, and it is already starting that one of them is also affected.”
Hoeneß also recounted his fondest memory in football: a 4-0 win in a catch-up match in the European Champions Club Cup final in 1974.
Hoeneß: “I still remember, I was 22 years old at the time, sitting on the bench after the game, completely exhausted, with this trophy in my hands and saying that if I could stop time, I would stop it now.”
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